The Importance Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain

There is great debate in America over the teaching of Huckleberry Finn as a required reading. The school systems of America are being challenged by students and families who feel uncomfortable or offended while reading the novel. Their discomfort is centered around the strong racist ideals of the southern states that are on display in the book. The book is filled to the brim with pro-slavery words, however; these are not the point of the book and those people miss the underlying messages that Mark Twain attempts to convey. The values it proclaims including honesty bravery are important in the minds of the students of America as they move forward in their lives. The novel is and should be among the elite novels of literature because of Twain’s expertise in character development with Jim and Huckleberry (Huck) which is a very important facet of English …show more content…
Mark Twain himself said “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education,” so why should the youth of this nation be deprived of such an excellent opportunity to learn from the reality and the mistakes of the past not just in the sense of English class but also in a moral sense? Huckleberry Finn is traditionally taught to high school juniors as required reading material due to its powerful messages and because of its literary value. These points are sometimes not worth the pain some students feel when reading this book. The teaching of this novel is being challenged by students and families who feel offended by the constant stream of racism that emits from almost all the southern whites in the story. The n word is used 219 times in the novel and was commonly used in the time period by the slave owning southern states. Today, this word is highly offensive to the African American population and makes most white people uncomfortable to hear or read it. This being said, it is clear to